Vicus Aureum

The encounter between the medieval district of neapolitan jewelry makers and the problematic twentieth-century via Marittima. The project is moving on a double facades system, 5 buildings are decomposing between two distinct urban areas from the medieval wall towards the overlook of nature.

The Vicus Aureum project consists of four residential buildings on the waterfront of the city, and a school / museum of jewellers in the centre of the district. The buildings are designed part by part and they follow two different urban directions. The monumental body of services follows the weft of the medieval city and the second façade that follows the curve of the new maritime road. The two elements are connected by an open habitable zone and by some aerial connections. The resulting space evokes the atmosphere of the alleys of Naples, the second façade protects from the sun and gives to the inhabitants a privileged view of the sea. Naples is a city that is born from the dream of a siren. The sea calls her back every day like the backwash, and so the salty breeze spreads through alleys and balconies. The balcony is an appendix stretching out toward the outside and the sea. The project moves from the intention to bring back the breeze on Via Marina, and a new view on the landscape that tends to infinity. The line on the sea is a façade, but mainly it becomes an architectural machine to look forward. The “chiaroscuro” of the double façade determines an intestine reality,which still allows to lose the vision toward horizon. The golden tectonic elements, representing a ship’s prow,reflect the sun, they answer to the call of the siren Partenope. It’s as if in front of this highway to the sea, which cannot become a public liveable space just for the palm trees and bike lanes, we have flipped vertically, in front, the public space and the overlook. The traditional Neapolitan balcony has been deconstructed and reconstructed piece by piece, it has become footbridge and then architectural catharsis (????????).